Saturday, September 1, 2012
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Inspired in Port Elizabeth
What a weekend.
Justin Renton (lead evangelist of the Johannesburg Church of Christ) and I came down to Port Elizabeth on Friday to help celebrate the 21st anniversary of the church. I had never been to Port Elizabeth. It is on the southern tip of South Africa. It is a port city ironically nicknamed "the windy city" as is my hometown of Chicago...but for different reasons! Home to 1.3 million people, it has a newly built soccer stadium named after Nelson Mandela that was built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
We had a great weekend singing, listening to messages, and fellowshipping.
It has been wonderful...but this morning caught me off guard.
We met on the beach with different members of the church to pray. I wanted to get to know one the brothers from the church so I asked him if we could pray together. His name is Alexis. We walked down the beautiful beach, taking turns praying to our common God in heaven. I listened to him pray with conviction about how powerful and mighty he envisioned God, asking him for help in his daily life, with his family, and with his personal evangelism. He prayed for his friends that he had invited out to church today, hoping that they would make it out to visit. After I prayed and we were nearing our starting point, I asked him where he was from. I was not prepared for his answer.
He told me that his family was from Burundi. I needed some help. I had him show me on a map of Africa. It is right next to Rwanda, which led to my next question...why did he come to South Africa. He explained his story...
Alexis and his family are Hutu. The Hutus and Tutsis have had constant civil war in Burundi and Rwanda, killing each other by the thousands over the past few decades. He was an engineer and his wife a lawyer. They were threatened with their lives and decided to leave Burundi with their four children in 2000. They made their way south, eventually walking through the Kruger National Park to file for refugee status in South Africa. For those unfamiliar, Kruger is the place people travel to from around the world to see lions, elephants, and other wildlife, typically with armed guides.
They eventually landed here in Port Elizabeth looking for any possible way to make ends meet. They met a Christian from the PE Church and were invited to attend. They came to the small group (about 50 members) and were taken in as family. They were given odd jobs working for some of the Christians around their homes just to put food on the table. They eventually were able to secure a home and after time, were both given jobs lecturing at the local university. They have landed back on their feet after much suffering, tragedy, and perseverance. They shared their testimony today at church, giving glory to God and thanking the church for the love they have received. They proudly sat back down next to the three friends that came to church with them today.
Absolutely amazing.
I am constantly struck by two things in Africa...the amount that people have suffered (as Americans we complain about the littlest things) and the difference that God's love makes in people's lives, often shown through His church.
God's glory shines the brightest where the world is the darkest.
Justin Renton (lead evangelist of the Johannesburg Church of Christ) and I came down to Port Elizabeth on Friday to help celebrate the 21st anniversary of the church. I had never been to Port Elizabeth. It is on the southern tip of South Africa. It is a port city ironically nicknamed "the windy city" as is my hometown of Chicago...but for different reasons! Home to 1.3 million people, it has a newly built soccer stadium named after Nelson Mandela that was built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
We had a great weekend singing, listening to messages, and fellowshipping.
It has been wonderful...but this morning caught me off guard.
We met on the beach with different members of the church to pray. I wanted to get to know one the brothers from the church so I asked him if we could pray together. His name is Alexis. We walked down the beautiful beach, taking turns praying to our common God in heaven. I listened to him pray with conviction about how powerful and mighty he envisioned God, asking him for help in his daily life, with his family, and with his personal evangelism. He prayed for his friends that he had invited out to church today, hoping that they would make it out to visit. After I prayed and we were nearing our starting point, I asked him where he was from. I was not prepared for his answer.
He told me that his family was from Burundi. I needed some help. I had him show me on a map of Africa. It is right next to Rwanda, which led to my next question...why did he come to South Africa. He explained his story...
Alexis and his family are Hutu. The Hutus and Tutsis have had constant civil war in Burundi and Rwanda, killing each other by the thousands over the past few decades. He was an engineer and his wife a lawyer. They were threatened with their lives and decided to leave Burundi with their four children in 2000. They made their way south, eventually walking through the Kruger National Park to file for refugee status in South Africa. For those unfamiliar, Kruger is the place people travel to from around the world to see lions, elephants, and other wildlife, typically with armed guides.
They eventually landed here in Port Elizabeth looking for any possible way to make ends meet. They met a Christian from the PE Church and were invited to attend. They came to the small group (about 50 members) and were taken in as family. They were given odd jobs working for some of the Christians around their homes just to put food on the table. They eventually were able to secure a home and after time, were both given jobs lecturing at the local university. They have landed back on their feet after much suffering, tragedy, and perseverance. They shared their testimony today at church, giving glory to God and thanking the church for the love they have received. They proudly sat back down next to the three friends that came to church with them today.
Absolutely amazing.
I am constantly struck by two things in Africa...the amount that people have suffered (as Americans we complain about the littlest things) and the difference that God's love makes in people's lives, often shown through His church.
God's glory shines the brightest where the world is the darkest.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Singapore
Our family began a five city tour of our churches in SE Asia on June 30. We left Johannesburg and flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We then flew to Singapore. I knew very little about Singapore before arriving. What a fascinating place. It is a city and country. It is run by a government that is very hard to imagine working anywhere else in the world. There is a lot of control...for example, the homes are leased to 99 years to people. They are almost all the same. They are all high rise apartments with a very similar layout. The cars aresimilarly ownedby the government and leased for ten years. The laws are very strict (they still cane people and the death penalty is used for drug trafficking, kidnapping, etc.) and therefore it is extremely safe. What is really surprising for me is to see how happy people are with the government. Singaporeans really seem to love it. They are very happy with how taken care of they are.
I taught a lesson for all of the youth leaders on Friday night. We got to see the church building as well. On Saturday, we had the opportunity to have John Louis' mother cook for us. She makes a very traditional and famous dish called rendang. It is one of my most enjoyed dishes.
Saturday night we had dinner with the Singapore church staff. I taught a lesson about relationships. On Sunday, they had a teen led worship service and I preached the sermon. It was very inspiring to be with the church. After Sunday worship, we were taken to the Banana Leaf restaurant for lunch. John Louis told us it was one of his favourites. It really was amazing. We had fish head curry. That was certainly a first for me.
After lunch we met up with some of the other staff for an exotic fruit outing. We drank coconut milk from young coconuts, ate mangosteen, jack fruit, dragon fruit, and durian. Durian is certainly an experience. The brothers here believe it was the forbidden fruit from Genesis 2. It certainly is A forbidden fruit. It smells SO strong that it is banned from public places and public transportation. You can smell it half a block away. The texture is like custard. It is one of the most bizarre tasting things I have ever eaten.
I was not a huge fan of durian but it was not too bad. Part of my problem was that I had just eaten WAY too much fish head curry.
I have to say that the highlight of the time in Singapore for me was our time with John and Karen Louis. They are great friends, very insightful, and tremendously encouraging. I think we feel a special kinship with them because of our work with families. They are kindred souls. We are passionate about a lot of the same things.
What a fun-filled, jam-packed few days.
Off to Bali for a few day holiday and then with the church in Jakarta over the weekend.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Looking Ahead To The Next Era
Last week the Johannesburg Church celebrated its 25th anniversary. God has done amazing things on the continent of Africa through our churches. The Jo'burg church was the first of our churches to be planted on the african continent and now there are over 70 churches with over 10,000 disciples. It was a great moment to reflect on what God has done. Justin and I also appointed Cornelius Xulu as our newest evangelist. Cornelius grew up in Soweto and has been an inspiration to the whole church as a great example of a God-reliant and humble man of God.
Today, I preached a sermon entitled "Looking Ahead To The New Era." What will it take for our church to continue forward for the next 25 years? We have seen many victories but we have also seen God's discipline and many casualties. Are we able to learn from all of it and keep our dreams? What should our dreams look like in this second generation?
The southern african geographic family of churches covers twelve nations. We only have nineteen churches in these twelve nations so far and only seven are led by full time ministers. We need to raise up many more evangelists. We need to plant many more churches. We need many more men and women to go into the ministry.
We need more elders, deacons, Bible Talk leaders, and staff members. We have only begun to see the beginning of reaching the lost. South Africa has eleven official languages. How will we take the gospel to people that speak native tongues that are not english? South Africa has the second highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world. What impact will our church make? South Africa also has a 40% unemployment rate. We cannot change the world without serving the poor.
We have only begun to dream.
We have only begun to see what God will do.
We have a daunting task ahead of us but God has already shown us His desire to work through us.
We must live for what we do not see.
We must remain in the vine.
We must dig deep to kindle the fires of motivation.
I believe that in 25 years, we will once again stand in awe at what God has done.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Baby, Its Cold Outside
Today is a cold winter day in Jo'burg.
Most people do not think of Africa getting cold and I must say, compared to growing up in the Midwest USA, the cold here does not compare. The difference here is that the homes and buildings are not heated. A typical winter day is absolutely beautiful during the day, about 65 F and sunny. T-shirt and shorts weather for sure. The challenge are the nights. It usually gets down to about 40 F. Last night it froze, 30 F. Our homes are primarily made of concrete so the cold sets in. We have a propane gas heater that we run in our living room on cold evenings and mornings like today. We layer our clothing and have lots of blankets. It is just a different lifestyle than we knew in the USA.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Johannesburg Church Singing
The singing in the church here is incredible. This is a video from the Central Region of the Joburg Church. Incredible energy and rhythm in Africa.
African Storms
One of my favourite things in South Africa are the lightening storms. During the summer, we get a quick but powerful storm to pass through many times during the week. We unplug everything in the house to avoid lightning damage (we lost our wireless phone already) and often lose power. One of the days we had a storm, I took my phone to the back door and waited to try and capture the power of the thunder. As you can see in the video, the thunder was so strong, it shook me and the phone.
Awesome.
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